By Oliver Brett

Ottis Gibson, the former West Indies fast bowler, found himself doing a most unusal thing in March.

Financial restraints had forced the England and Wales Cricket Board to cut back on their coaching staff.

England have turned to an Aussie who hasn't played much but who has studied the art and science of fast bowling Gibson on England bowling coach Troy Cooley

Gibson, informed that his contract as a national coach employed in the north-west would not be renewed, had to plan for the future once again.

So at the age of 35, seven years after his 15th and final one-day international cap, the Barbadian found himself on the playing staff of a first-class team once again, this time Leicestershire.

And on 21 April he was bowling against one of his old clubs, Glamorgan, three years after appearing for Gauteng in South Africa - which was meant to have been his final hurrah as a player.

"I was trying to start a family and going away over the winters didn't really help," Gibson tells BBC Sport.

"My chances of playing for the West Indies had pretty much finished by that stage.

"I had always wanted to be a coach and I decided that when the opportunity came up with the ECB I thought it would be the best thing to do."

The job entailed coaching young teenage players and it was conveniently placed, because his wife is from Bolton.

He also assisted at the National Academy, where he met Troy Cooley, the Australian bowling guru credited with much of England's recent success in the West Indies.

Gibson admires Cooley's approach to coaching.

"There are a lot of ex-great fast bowlers who go on TV and talk about the game, but England have turned to an Aussie who hasn't played much but who has studied the art and science of fast bowling.

Once a team-mate, Matthew Maynard is now an adversary

"Coaching fast bowlers is about getting the bowlers to understand what they're good at and to understand their actions better.

"The coach can only do so much - the player has to believe in his ability to do the job that is required.

"What Troy does is to try to help the person be self-sufficient and back himself to do well, and it's worked."

Donning the whites and, no doubt, a few sweaters at Grace Road a week or so ago was "a little bit strange", admits Gibson.

"I suppose I didn't think I would ever be doing it ever again," he says.

"I was playing against people I had played with at Glamorgan like Matthew Maynard and Robert Croft. I wanted to prove to myself that I could still do it."

By offering a two-year contract that includes playing and coaching responsibilities, Leicestershire were giving Gibson exactly what he was seeking.

And he is currently in the process of moving his family to the east Midlands.

Gibson's two-year-old son is not quite marking out his run-up yet, but dad has big hopes for him.

"He can't sit still yet and we don't want him disrupting play so we try to keep him off the field.